Quotes from Richard Louv

Now, more than ever, we need nature as a balancing agent.

Kids are plugged into some sort of electronic medium 44 hours per week.

The children and nature movement is fueled by this fundamental idea: the child in nature is an endangered species, and the health of children and the health of the Earth are inseparable.

Nature is imperfectly perfect, filled with loose parts and possibilities, with mud and dust, nettles and sky, transcendent hands-on moments and skinned knees.

Every child needs nature. Not just the ones with parents who appreciate nature. Not only those of a certain economic class or culture or set of abilities. Every child.

By bringing nature into our lives, we invite humility.

Natural play strengthens children's self-confidence and arouses their senses-their awareness of the world and all that moves in it, seen and unseen.

Children need nature for the healthy development of their senses, and therefore, for learning and creativity.

As one scientist puts it, we can now assume that just as children need good nutrition and adequate sleep, they may very well need contact with nature.

In our bones we need the natural curves of hills, the scent of chaparral, the whisper of pines, the possibility of wildness.

The future will belong to the nature-smart...Th e more high-tech we become, the more nature we need.

Nature is one of the best antidotes to fear.

If a child never sees the stars, never has meaningful encounters with other species, never experiences the richness of nature, what happens to that child?

There is another possibility: not the end of nature, but the rebirth of wonder and even joy.

In nature, a child finds freedom, fantasy, and privacy: a place distant from the adult world, a separate peace.

Green exercise improves psychological health.

Reconnection to the natural world is fundamental to human health, well-being, spirit, and survival.

The times I spent with my children in nature are among my most meaningful memories-and I hope theirs.

An environment-based education movement--at all levels of education--will help students realize that school isn't supposed to be a polite form of incarceration, but a portal to the wider world.

The woods were my Ritalin. Nature calmed me, focused me, and yet excited my senses.

Passion is lifted from the earth itself by the muddy hands of the young; it travels along grass-stained sleeves to the heart. If we are going to save environmentalism and the environment, we must also save an endangered indicator species: the child in nature.

In medieval times, if someone displayed the symptoms we now identify as boredom, that person was thought to be committing something called acedia , a 'dangerous form of spiritual alienation' -- a devaluing of the world and its creator.

We have such a brief opportunity to pass on to our children our love for this Earth, and to tell our stories. These are the moments when the world is made whole. In my children's memories, the adventures we've had together in nature will always exist.

If getting our kids out into nature is a search for perfection, or is one more chore, then the belief in perfection and the chore defeats the joy. It's a good thing to learn more about nature in order to share this knowledge with children; it's even better if the adult and child learn about nature together. And it's a lot more fun.